Tag: sony

I just picked up a brand, new Sony A6300, this is the new Sony 4K mirrorless camera that retails for $1000 USD. This is probably the best 4K camera of the year for your money.

My first impressions on the Sony A6300 is that the body is super light. Now, the build quality is very poor, made up mostly of plastic and feels like a toy. Now, this is probably not a camera recommended for rugged professional use in the field, you will not want to ever drop it or use it in any kind of light rain.

The reason why this sticks out to me is that because I started with Canon DSLR cameras (7D, 60D, and 6D) and the build quality of Canons are amazing in comparison to the A6300. They are also weather resistant and can handle light rains no problem. Also recently my new $1000 Sony RX100M4 broke with a drop from my pockets, leading me to believe that Sony’s don’t have good build quality.

But other than that this is an awesome camera with an APS-C sensor along with support for UHD 4K. None of the Canon DSLRs (except the newer $6000 Canon 1DX Mark II) support 4K, which is a huge downside for people like me who shoot in 4K mostly.

I will have a full test but based on my short time with the Sony A6300, the low light performance incredible in comparison to my daily driver Panasonic GH4. I’ve always had trouble shooting in low-light or near complete darkness with the GH4 as it’s not the best on the market for that purpose and ISO maxes out at 6400.

The Sony A6300 has low-light performance very similar to their higher-priced $3000 Sony A7Rii, which I wanted to get but the price wasn’t right. This is exciting for indie video/film makers/YouTubers as you will now be able to take advantage of low prices for professional-grade 4K videos.

Not only that, the Sony A6300 offers S-Log2 and S-Log3 for the highest dynamic range. If you want to take advantage of the flatter profiles, you can also pick up Atmos Ninja Flame, which allows you to monitor your S-Log2/S-Log3 in real-time. I have actually pre-ordered the Atmos Ninja Flame so I should have an unboxing/review of that also.

For lenses, the Sony A6300 uses Sony’s standard E-Mount, which allows you to mount any Sony E-Mount lenses. If you own Canon or Nikon lenses, you can grab a E-Mount adapter or Metabones Speedbooster to use your existing lenses. I am picking up a Metabones Speedbooster for Canon to E-Mount, which will make the Sony A6300 APS-C into a full-frame camera.

I love my Canon 6D, which is a full-frame camera and the low-light performance is amazing but only thing it doesn’t do is 4K video, which I need. With the new Sony A6300, I am hoping to be able to achieve great low-light photos like my Canon 6D along with much better low-light videos than my Panasonic GH4.

Also, I recently broke the HDMI output port on my Panasonic GH4 and the Sony A6300 supports HDMI monitoring while recording in 4K (but the liveview will turn off). This was a huge feature for me and for people who use external monitors since the A6300 does not have a flip-out screen (rather flip up and down).

Overall, I am very impressed at what Sony has to offer for the price of just $1000. I don’t really like the cheap build quality but then again, I would rather pay less than pay hundreds more for better build quality. Of course, you can just get some insurance like I did and not worry about dropping it.

I should have a full review after I play with it, you will find most of my future videos on my YouTube channel made with this new 4K camera so stay tuned!